China launches new campaign to fight online piracy

Government's latest campaign sees joint effort from four ministry departments to up supervision over Web service and content providers, and make guidelines for copyright protection and penalties, report says.

The Chinese government has launched a new four-month campaign against online piracy, through a combined effort by four ministry departments to boost supervision over Internet services and content providers as well as propose guidelines for e-commerce platforms to create copyright rules and penalties.

Citing a joint statement from the ministries, Xinhua reported Wednesday that the inter-agency coordination between the National Copyright Administration, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the State Internet Information Office will highlight supervision over content providers, online storage and search engine services, and e-commerce platforms.

Local authorities will be required to conduct special investigations and boost routine inspections over online publications, said the report.

The statement also proposed supervisory guidelines for e-commerce platforms under which service providers will need to create specific rules for copyright protection and internal penalties for violations, Xinhua added.

The news agency reported that the Chinese government has conducted frequent raids and campaigns to crack down on intellectual property (IP) violations. It noted that China's Internet service providers (ISPs) have also made efforts to protect IP rights while Internet companies are also cooperating with copyright owners to offer authorized content to users including movies and music.

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